Why does vaccination against covid (supposedly) provide better protection than having been infected with covid? If you survive an infection, your immune system has or has acquired the ability to fight covid. Infection means your immune system has encountered, created antibodies for, and attacked AT LEAST one antigen associated with covid.
Why would this immune response be less effective than one derived from being presented with a single antigen (spike protein) through vaccination?
Is the spike protein extremely conserved throughout mutations compared to other antigens?
Do people usually recover from infection by innate immunity before antibody mediated mechanisms can take place?

I know 'everyone get vaccinated' is an easier public health message than 'get vaccinated if you haven't gotten covid yet', but I haven't seen any literature as to why infection-acquired immunity should be completely disregarded.